Insurers still not ready for “big data”: Gartner

The management and utilization of “big data” is critical in competitiveness within the insurance industry, states a recent report from Gartner.

However, most insurers struggle with understanding just what big data is, as well as lacking the data governance, information technology (IT) foundation and IT investments to support big data initiatives.

These will require larger investments in data storage, new analysis tools and possible legacy system replacement, notes the report authored by Gartner research vice president and distinguished analyst Kimberley Harris-Ferrante.

Gartner notes it has witnessed an increase in year-over-year investments in information management, including business intelligence (BI) and analytics. These are now considered necessary elements in business success for top-tier insurers, as information assets are leveraged for decision support, compliance and improved competitiveness. Yet key factors are limiting the ability of p&c and life insurers to tap the potential of big data.

“Many of the challenges associated with big data have been ongoing data integrity, data trapped in source systems (especially legacy core business systems), a focus only on structured data, data consistency and data ownership battles (political, by line of business without data sharing in many cases and lack of data governance) and are all struggles that need to be faced in 2012 and 2013 to set the stage for big data success,” the Gartner report adds.